I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE

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Looking for forward to the new remake of I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE? Or perhaps you’re cynical because of the glut of sub-par ‘reimaginings’ in recent years? Many horror fans have a love/hate relationship with remakes. Yes, there’s an initial surge of excitement maybe, as a classic chiller from your past comes into public view again but as bitter experience proves, most are pale and characterless, as inevitiably the new version will be more in keeping with prevalent genre trends than the original material.

Sometimes this isn’t the fault of the filmmaker. How do you recreate the verite look of Last House on the Left for a new audience raised on slick product? As a general rule of thumb, all time classics shouldn’t be remade but which horror properties are going to make the most cash? Those with a notorious reputation.. The classics in other words. With a world of flawed movies that had the seed of a good idea floating about, you’d think that producers and directors might want to take films that blew it and give those stories as second chance. Outside the horror genre, look at Ocean’s 11, a nice idea for a heist romp let down by the drunken bonhomie of it’s Rat Pack stars. Fast forward to the 90s and the all-star Hollywood remake turns out to be leaner and less bogged down in Vegas in-jokes. Result? A vast improvement.

That’s why the I Spit On Your Grave remake is actually something of a find. The original movie must thank the British Board of Film Classification for it’s eternal notoriety, that and a brutally effective sleeve that left you wondering about the movie long after you left the video shop. The original film is one of those aforementioned flawed movies that might actually benefit from being revisited. The filmmakers behind the remake have taken a grindhouse rape-revenge cheapie, more akin to rough 42nd Street fare like Fight For Your Life or The Candysnatchers and turned it into a modern horror endurance test. Gone are certain distractions, like the uneven acting on display from the rapist gang or the dated and these days questionable portrayal of learning difficulties in one of the characters.

Replacing the original good old boys with a younger, more focused group of thugs played by actors with real chops sharpens the fear. One of the more interesting aspects of watching exploitation films from another age is that the flaws, botched edits and rapidly shifting tone of these ‘quickly made to be quickly forgotten’ films draws you away from the horrors you’re seeing and gives you ironic distance. The I Spit on Your Grave remake removes these safety buffers. Although by no means a smoothed out and slick experience, the overall professionalism of the film gives you no get out clause. the images are harsh and troubling and there’s no fluffed cues or oddball dialogue to give you distance.

The new version of I Spit On Your Grave also wins out against it’s contempories in the extreme horror genre. Less fantasical and pantomime than Saw and it’s myriad sequels and with a central victim you actually feel some sympathy for, unlike the obnoxious sex tourists in Hostel, it’s a film that takes advantage of the simple, barebones Rape-Revenge premise of the original and uses it to create an amoral thrill ride that actually delivers on the original’s promises and, unlike other more fantastical modern films, doesn’t jolly up it’s sadism with fancy equipment or creepy puppets.

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